Hollifield asks: Competition or Cooperation?
By Melissa Lilley
GREENSBORO (BSCNC Communications) - Read any article or blog on business administration, leadership, sports or just about anything else and they will all say the same thing: success is a good thing. By its very definition success means achievement; something that turns out well. So when the Executive Director-Treasurer of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina (BSCNC) Milton A. Hollifield, Jr., took the stage for his address at the 179th BSCNC annual session and told everyone that the success of churches is problematic, it is probably safe to say that not many people saw that one coming. But then again, it was just that kind of night. A night when Hollifield spoke to one tension after another, being quite forthright and speaking openly about issues that make people uncomfortable because, as he put it, too often people make everything “either/or.”
Hollifield said the source of transition and change subtly taking place in the churches of the Convention can be attributed to the success of churches. As churches increased in size and resources, “the growth and success of particular churches came over a period of time and some have become an island unto themselves. The cessation of cooperation with one another and fervent prayer for each other quickly followed suit,” Hollifield said.
Going after large churches was not Hollifield’s intent. Rather, he spoke about churches seeing success as reason “to no longer need to pray for each other and cooperate” with other churches. This spirit of independence to the abandonment of partnership comes when churches forget the very foundation on which the Convention was built.
Hollifield’s address, titled “Competition or Cooperation,” included highlights from North Carolina Baptist history, such as the founding of the Biblical Recorder and the first North Carolina Baptist association, that all pointed to one conclusion: “We find ourselves as a convention of churches, having been established on the need for cooperative support of each other and our collective efforts for missionary service, but now functioning so independently of each other that we no longer pray for, much less cooperate with each other,” Hollifield said.
Lack of cooperation grows out of a spirit far too focused on self, and a spirit that believes it must be one way or nothing else. Sprinkled throughout Hollifield’s address came example after example of how believers choose one side or the other – they choose “either/or” instead of “both/and.” Some think the battle is only about preserving the validity and authority of Holy Scripture, which results in a failing to “teach, minster and find relevant ways to express the truths which we hold so dear,” Hollifield said. Others argue it must be the national convention or the state convention; give to missions or participate in missions; my church or their church.
Hollifield asked those in attendance to consider why the decision must be either/or, especially regarding the Southern Baptist Convention and the BSCNC. “While the BSCNC is an autonomous convention, independent in every right, we cannot accomplish the mandate of the Great Commission and the Great Commandment alone; this state convention will do well to pray for and cooperate with the SBC,” Hollifield said. “I’m Southern Baptist because I believe Southern Baptist doctrine and I greatly value our means of supporting our missionaries, but that does not prohibit me from working with other evangelical churches who share our burden for missions.” This statement was just one of several that aroused applause from North Carolina Baptists.
In his opening remarks, Hollifield referred to a blog post on Between the Times by Dr. Danny Akin and Dr. Bruce Ashford that described the Southern Baptist Convention as mainly middle-class, white churches. Why is this the case when the population of the United States continues becoming more diverse? Go back to the title of the address – churches and individuals are losing interest in cooperating with those different than themselves.
Akin, a regular contributor to the Between the Times blog, is a member of the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force and Hollifield asked North Carolina Baptists to pray for the work of the task force. “The naysayers will declare that the Southern Baptist Convention as we’ve known it will fade away and become a shell of its former influence and impact for the Kingdom of God because this is what we’ve observed among other Christian denominations,” Hollifield said. Yes, Hollifield admitted that could happen if believers forsake cooperation. Instead, Baptists should recognize the incredible opportunity they have to “pray together and serve together as we ask God to reveal His will to the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force and guide the search committees that will bring new leadership to these SBC agencies.”
Hollifield used a considerable amount of his time before North Carolina Baptists urging them to pray. The realization that the ministry and missionary efforts of North Carolina Baptists are not accomplishing all God expects and requires should be enough to send North Carolina Baptists to their knees. Hollifield asked messengers to think back to the last time they prayed not for their church, but for another church in the community. “I challenge you to pray for the very churches that some of you think are in competition with your congregation to reach the lost and un-churched of your town,” he said. When prayer is primary, a natural succession follows: prayer for one another leads to cooperation with one another, which in turn leads to a ministry effort focused on “assisting established congregations to become healthy reproducing, disciple-making, lighthouses in this dark world.”
Perhaps some do not pray as they should because they do not grasp the depth and breadth of all North Carolina Baptists are doing for the cause of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Hollifield highlighted just a few: rebuilding 716 homes in Gulfport, Miss., in three years and witnessing 428 people receive Jesus Christ as personal Lord and Savior; caring for over 1,500 children through the six Baptist Children’s Homes of North Carolina; and assisting more than 200 teenagers at youth camp at Caswell who said God was calling them to full-time ministry and missionary service.
These ministries are indeed good news – but Hollifield did not shy away from the bad news. Although the BSCNC has increased its investment in church planting 71 percent since 2007, and in the past five years increased the amount of dollars it forwards to the SBC by 8.5 percent, Convention income for the Cooperative Program has decreased by 2.5 percent in the past five years. Since 1995, the undesignated receipts of BSCNC churches increased from $494 million to $892 million, representative of a 75 percent increase. However, during that same time, the total missions expenditures increased from $98 million to only $105 million, only a seven percent increase.
Since 1995, the percentage of undesignated receipts of Convention churches going to the Cooperative Program decreased from 5.8 percent to 4 percent. Yet, at the same time, the percentage of undesignated receipts of churches being spent on missions, including Cooperative Program and all other missions causes, decreased from 19.8 percent to 12.2 percent. What this means is – and this statement brought a collective gasp from the audience - if North Carolina Baptist churches spent the same percentage of their budgets on missions today that they spent in 1995, more than $66 million more would be going toward missions than did last year.
“If North Carolina Baptist churches will commit to the support of missions beyond what they are doing in their own ministries in comparison to what they have invested in missions in past years, we will be able to send much larger amounts on to the Southern Baptist Convention,” Hollifield said.
“Competition or cooperation – which is it going to be for you and your church?” Hollifield asked in closing. “For me, I choose to cooperate. I don’t always have to have my own way. Our love for Jesus and our obedience to Him is more important. I choose to cooperate for the good of His Kingdom and the redemption of those who still need a savior.”
